The View from Here

Rules for Eating

I have an 1890 copy of the “Welcome Baking Powder Encyclopedia of Cookery and Valuable Recipes- Containing More Than Twenty-five Hundred Recipes for Cooking Every Kind of Meat and Fowl, Making Soup, Gravies, Pastry, Preserves and Essences, and a Chapter on Home Duties, Dress Making, and Being Your Own Doctor”.  I think that covers just about everything we might need! The book was a souvenir given away by the Welcome Baking Powder Co. of Kansas City. I had forgotten all about it until recently when I was sorting through some keepsakes. It has some very interesting recipes, but I’ll save those for another day. Today I want you to read Dr. Hall’s words of wisdom on eating. (I have no idea who Dr. Hall was, but he must not have needed any introduction or explanation because there isn’t one.)

"Rules for Eating…

1. Never sit down to table with an anxious or disturbed mind; better a hundred times intermit that meal, for there will then be that much more food in the world for hungrier stomachs than yours; and besides, eating under such circumstances can only, and will always, prolong and aggravate the condition of things. 
2. Never sit down to a meal after any intense mental effort, for physical and mental injury are inevitable, and no one has a right to deliberately injure body, mind, or estate. 
3. Never go to a full table during bodily exhaustion- designated by some as being worn out, tired to death, used up, over done, and the like. The wisest thing to be done under such circumstances is to take a cracker and a cup of warm tea, either black or green, and no more. In ten minutes you will feel a degree of refreshment and liveliness which will be pleasantly surprising to you; not of the transient kind which a glass of liquor affords, but permanent; but the tea gives present stimulus and a little strength, and before it subsides, nutriment begins to draw from the sugar, and cream, and bread, thus allowing the body gradually, and by safe degrees, to regain its usual vigor. Then, in a couple of hours, a full meal may be taken, provided that it does not bring it later than two hours before sundown; if later, then take nothing for that day in addition to the cracker and tea, and the next day you will feel a freshness and vigor not recently known.

No lady will require to be advised a second time, who will conform to the above rules; while it is a fact of no unusual observation among intelligent physicians that eating heartily and under bodily exhaustion is not unfrequently the cause of alarming and painful illness, and sometimes sudden death. These things being so, let every family make it a point to assemble around the table with kindly feelings- with a cheerful humor, and a courteous spirit; and let that member of it be sent from it in disgrace who presumes to mar the reunion by sullen silence, or impatient look, or angry tone, or complaining tongue. Eat ever in thankful gladness, or away with you to the kitchen, you “ill-tempered thing, that you are.” There was good philosophy in the old-time custom of having a buffoon or music a the dinner-table."

Amen...especially that last part about family members. :)

Men and Machines

Here’s the difference between men and women: Last night I’m telling my husband about my plans for today and I mention that it is finally dry enough to mow the lawn. Our new lawn is huge: two+ hours of mowing with the push mower, so I’ve been doing about 30 minutes each day rather than tackle the whole thing at once. Works for me. But of course hubby thinks we need a riding mower. He has mentioned this at least six times since we moved in two months ago. And he had to talk about it again last night. Meanwhile, I’m thinking we just need to get rid of the lawn! Give me about a year and I’ll have so much of it converted to flower beds and gardens that it will take 45 minutes, tops, to mow the whole lawn. Huge lawns are basically useless anyway, unless you have a couple of kids who love to play soccer!

For some reason men like the idea of mowing an acre of grass with a gas-guzzling machine so big that it needs its own storage shed. They love to hear about things like “turning ratios” and “horsepower”. I don’t understand it. Farming I understand. Pastures. Prairies. Parks. Golf courses. These I understand. The idea of a big lawn baffles me. One reason is because the riding mower is just the beginning. If you are going to spend that much money on a machine that mows the grass, then the grass must be worthy of such a machine. So guys invest in lawn seed and fertilizer and hoses and trimmers and other gadgets. They agonize over things like “double cutting”, raking, edging, cutting to the correct height, weed control. I once read about a lawn fanatic who got up early every morning to drag a hose across his lawn because he read that removing the morning dew prevented some sort of fungus. Insanity.

The really sad part of this is that most men don’t take time to enjoy the lawn they’ve mowed. They don’t play sports on it. They don’t sit on the patio and gaze at it. They just control it. At least my hard work in the garden is constantly rewarded. I enjoy the process of growing things. I get to see, smell, photograph, and pick beautiful flowers. I grow things to eat. I create habitats for birds and small critters. I take pleasure in seeing others enjoy my garden.

Men and their machines. They can keep them. And that lawn has to go…